London, June 6, 2023: Liv-ex, the global marketplace for the fine wine trade, reports that all of the major fine wine Liv-ex indices are down month-on-month and year-to-date.
James Miles, Chairman and CEO of Liv-ex tweeted ‘While some of Bordeaux is busily increasing prices for the 2022 vintage by 20%+, prices in the secondary market are falling across the board. The two things are not unrelated in my opinion.’
Market Briefing
May saw the launch of the Bordeaux 2022 en primeur campaign – a two-month event that dominates the news wires (and is the trade’s singular focus) in the fine wine world.
The market was already very cautious after a 7-year period of rising prices and a macro economic environment (rising interest rates, slowing growth) that was taking the wind out of the sails of many asset classes. Wine prices had already started to drift.
As the Bordeaux releases began to emerge at prices far higher than anticipated (or wanted), the secondary market felt the chill. Prices fell across all regions in May as buyers retreated.
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000, the broadest measure of the secondary market, experienced a significant decline of 2.4% in May, closing at 457. This marks the index’s largest month-on-month decrease in the past seven months.
Meanwhile, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 fell a further 2% in May following the decrease seen in April, to close at 405.68. Year-to-date, the index is down 3.3%.
Bordeaux En Primeur 2022 is dominating trade headlines at the moment, though so far the campaign has felt pedestrian. Only 25% of the top wines have been released so far, and if there is any insight to be gained from the releases so far, it is that buyers won’t buy the 2022 vintage at all costs, no matter how critically-acclaimed it is. Analysis of 111 wines, released of Thursday 1st June, showed that overall, the wines’ ex negociant prices increased by 11.5% on average from 2021 to 2022. Their UK release prices showed an even higher overall average increase of 15.6% due to the weaker Sterling.
Regional Performance
The Bordeaux 500 only fell by 1.3% this month, and its year-to-date performance has been the most resilient of all the sub-indices, with a decrease of only 2.0%. The Bordeaux Legends 40 index dropped by 2.7% this month – the same amount as the Champagne 50. However, year-to-date, it has only declined by 2.7% compared to the Champagne 50‘s 9.1% decline in 2023 so far.
With this uncharacteristic volatility in the market, it is perhaps unsurprising that the trade has been quite risk-averse year-to-date. The steady price action and rising trade for Bordeaux’s wines might suggest that buyers are returning to more familiar regions known for their stability and liquidity.
Market drivers
Of the 100 wines that make up the Liv-ex 100 index, the majority experienced price declines, with 79 wines seeing their prices fall, while 21 rose.
Interestingly, Burgundy wines featured heavily in both the top and bottom performers.
However, it is worth noting that despite their strong performances in May, from the table above, the Taittinger, and the Domaine Ponsot, are both down year-to-date, by 6.9% and 4.7% respectively.
